Ideas for Changing CPS to Protect Families

This is a guest post about ways that Child Protective Services could be changed for the better.REVISEMENT
By Cyndee Weir

Stipulate specific laws and guidelines for CPS to follow that comply with our federal laws and US Constitution and its Amendments.

Have CPS work directly under the supervision of LAW ENFORCEMENT to ensure these guidelines are being followed.

Child abuse and neglect is a crime and should be treated as such, Crimes against children should be moved from family and juvenile court to criminal court. This would force CPS to get a warrant before seizing children. It would also force them to have to provide factual evidence before they could sever parental rights. It would ultimately ensure due process.

Force CPS officers to inform parents or guardians of their right to remain silent before they are interviewed.

Take away adoption bonus incentive or match them with equal bonus incentives given to reunification.

The goal for permanency should be the best interest of children rather than financial gain. And reunification should always take precedence over severance. Family preservation should be the primary goal. Severance should not be rushed and should only be considered when all other options have been exhausted.

Define imminent danger.

Removing children from their home is emotionally devastating for both children and their families and should only be considered when absolutely necessary.

The case plan for reunification must be based on when the initial cause for removal is alleviated.

Set up specific case plan goals and requirements with a projected timeline and make sure parents or guardians are aware fully aware of them as well as the consequences for non-compliance, so they know what is expected of them.

Completely reform the federal budget for CPS focusing on necessary expenses rather than basing it on child removal.

Give equal financial assistance to poverty stricken families whose children are in dependent care for the purpose of neglect because their parents couldn’t afford to supply them with their monetary needs, as is given to foster care. This would help alleviate the number of children in CPS custody, and it would help strengthen families rather than destroying them.

Change the time-frame of severance. Severance should be based on each individual case and the circumstances surrounding it.

Parents who have children under the age of three should be given equal time to alleviate their shortcomings as is given to parents who have children over the age of three. They shouldn’t have less time to better themselves or their circumstance simply because their children are more adoptable.

Family should always be the first considered to adopt when severance is necessary, before foster placements.

Government officials should be held accountable for their actions on a criminal level. Fines and incarceration aren’t unreasonable especially considering the impact their decisions can have on families.

Federal and state funding needs to be set up specifically for the purpose of CPS and its services. Currently they are taking funding from other agencies intended for a different cause: Agencies such as DES designed for low income families and their children to help them gain financial stability, and also from Social Security for the elderly and disabled who have worked their lifetime so that they could have an income to fall back on. Another example: Arizona Early Childhood Development and Health Board which helps children from families with low income with health and learning disabilities.
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Cyndee Weir can be found at her websites: Revise CPS and Coalition Against Racketeering Children For Profit.
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Comments

I’ve never been involved with cps.my grandsons. Where taken from us one year ago we were on are way to bring them home – foster mom call social worker said we abuse the boys. So we are under investigation…this is a nightmare.and so wrong…need to find a lawyer that’s gonna…tear them to pieces…

I understand why DHR is full of crap now. I see in the paper where you can be a social worker in 18 mths. If you don’t have children and had some life experiences. Then 18 mth course isn’t going to help you any. I thought DHR would help me but they are ruining my grandsons and daughters life. I’m getting ready to sleep on the court house steps to talk to someone who listens. Please someone let me tell you the story.

We need to get this on our ballots for this November. Who with power and courage can do this? I was refused as a grandparent to get my granddaughter because I put an adult in prison for rape that he did in my home. They call that founded and that is one of the reasons. I am too poor to hire an attorney to fight this. The caseworker here in Clackamas county in Oregon belittles my daughter and sits on her hands and does not even report injuries to my granddaughter. This worker needs to have more than her hands slapped. My granddaughter got molested and she still did not report that. It took me writing to the children’s attorney and the man is still working. He’s a corrections officer so I guess that means he’s untouchable? The incentives are totally wrong and I ‘m with you 100%.

CPS need to be accountable for the mistakes and false allegations and have a limit of years allowed to fill positions. That way they will be less likely to make false reports and not have so much of a cookie cutter way of doing things , maybe they will take each case for what it truly is and not go on judgement and or routine. Many families including my own would have never had to go through all the pain and suffering and the years of healing they created, If they would have given me a benefit of a doubt and not be judgemental my children wouldnt have been removed (they never should have been) and no one would have to have gone through all the pain we have been put through for no reason at all. Also I believe that a class what and how to deal with cps should be mandatory to all 1st time parents and for any parent who is in the need to know. If we had all the info we have now NONE of the things we are going through would have happened. Take way the “power” they think they have and the general public dosnt know they dont have.

My husband and I have 4 children. My husband and I had some alcoholic drinks I had 2 and he had a few more than I did. My husband was passed out, and I was not. My daughter called 911 because she was worried about her father. He was unresponsive.We had 2 cases in the past involving alcohol abuse. I just don’t know how it is legal to remove my kids from there home. He was not doing anything wrong. just sleeping. My 3 other children were as well I got loud with the police because. I was upset that my daughter called the police, and she wouldn’t tell me what she said. The said I was intoxicated but was fully alert and very scared about them being in my home.

Riverside CA CPS workers have got to be the worst. I am a relative who has been drawn into a CPS case in an attempt to have the children placed with me. I have an immaculent background – absolutely nothing to keep me from having the children, but they have screwed with me over and over. Parents are not the only ones they lie to and about; They lie about anything and everything. Their phones were out of service one day and I needed to get a hold of someone – every number claimed to be not in service. The next day, the person I needed to talk to denied they had phone problems.????? I guess they think I’m some kind of idiot. I get this crap from everyone I talk to. When I read their reports, I see one mis-statement after another. They just look at me when I point out these “mistakes”. Nothing is changed/nothing is corrected.
These workers actually believe they are GOD. I have references from professional people in several different areas – ignored.
My niece’s case is so minor that even the therapist and counselors she has seen have said they can’t believe the children were removed, but they now only work to prove they are right; not what is right for the children. I am so disgusted; I’ve talked to lawyers who tell me it happens over and over in this county; the judges always side with the CPS people and will shut down defense lawyers when they’ve decided they don’t care to hear anything more. Good luck trying to refute anything the CPS side says. Court appointed lawyers -some are good/some are bad- don’t have the time to properly prepare themselves for any surprise issues that CPS is known for throwing into the case, so they can’t properly defend against allegations that are just thrown out for the judge to consider.
I was told the workers I have had to deal with are new and just out of training; I would believe it because they have done and said some of the most bizarre things. What other agency would hire idiots and keep them as long as they adhere to the stab ’em the back philosophy.

I have to agree with what I have read. CPS should not be run by a bunch of social workers who have their own agendas and don’t know how to tell the truth and follow the law.

CPS RIVERSIDE – YOU ALL KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!! FOCUS ON THE REAL CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT, ENDANGERMENT CASES AND STOP HARASSING GOOD PEOPLE WITH YOUR LIES.

IF YOU WANT TO ABOLISH THIS RIDICULOUS SYSTEM THAT IS ACTUALLY HARMING SOME CHILDREN MORE THAN IT HELPS THEM – BOMBARD THE POWERS THAT BE IN GOVERNMENT WITH COMPLAINTS — CPS HAS A STANGLEHOLD ON THIS SYSTEM AND ONLY THE IDIOTS WHO CREATED IT CAN DO AWAY WITH IT.

I’ve thrown in the towel; I believe my niece will have her kids back before I ever get them.
And then I can help them all MOVE AS FAR AWAY FROM RIVERSIDE AS POSSIBLE!!!

This is not only the most resident-unfriendly place to live, it is the most child-unfriendly place for any child to grow up.

To “Anti Social workers” – Believe it or not, what you describe is routine CPS social worker behavior in most areas of the USA. And even in other countries! The system is flawed from the core… meaning the federal laws that favor adoption over family sanctity. Oh, they say their priority is reunification, but the federal funding encourages adoption by strangers plus drugging kids with psychotropic meds so fosterers and adopters can get larger payments from the government. There are some parts of the country that are considerably better than California, however. There are some states I hear complaints about a lot on this site, and other states I rarely hear about although CPS still exists there. States I hear about a lot include Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Florida. There are others…. in general, you could use the search engine on this site to look for a state name and if there’s nothing there, maybe that would be a better state to live in besides California. Or use the Google search engine to try to find cases that are causing people pain in other states. Good luck getting the kids back, and finding a better home for the family.

we need emergency help the child is a daddys girl she never had a mother until the father wanted a divorce for her neglect, her lazy attitudr dhr eould not cook bathe the child nor change her too busy texting her boyfriends.. what do we do

a cps worker who lied and threatened me not to report abuse of my daughter, and never interveiwed the people who knew it was the moyjer not the father abusing the child, the lying cps worker never interveiwed anyone but the neglectable mother not the loving caring father who always had to care for the child now the idiot case worker has filed neglect charges on the dad, the onew the child loves and clings too, there was a divorce hearing and the cps waits till Friday afterboon to file neglect charges which are totally false she was abusive yelled and threatened us for calling in abuse never at any time did she interveiw the people who had to care for the child,, what do we do

I agree with you. I would also put in that the one who complains can not be a foster parent or adopter. We need someone other than CPS to investigate complaints about them and not to believe everything that CPS says. I find terrible that a Ex Attorney General tells me to follow the money.

I have a case currently that is going to trial over custody due to removed limited conservators conspiring with CPS and a once hated mother of the child to gain standing in a Grandparents rights case where the were told they did not have any rights. Please call (530)8nine9-29two4 if you can help.

This case is going to trial in April and I need an attorney to help litigate these issues. Everything is based on lies on top of lies to bolster a case that never existed. If you have any ideas of can help find an interested attorney in this family case that would like to go after this appropriately. Please help

I have a full case I am willing to share with anyone who can use it to help others. I have raised my daughter independently for 12 years. She had perfect attandance, straight A’s. I involved her in Boys and Girls since my mother and her husband never took care of her educational needs on Tues. and Thurs. Then they gained up with CPS lies that they all bolstered a grandparents rights case turned to custody now going to trial. Adult protective services is now involved because the limited conservators were removed for wrongdoing. Then the next day they conjured this current case that a battle from two attorneys lying about me has been going on for over a year. They removed my attorney with their limited conservatorship rights 5 month into the case. Then left me without any legal help until I filed paperwork about bills Govenor Swartzenager filed to protect the conserved and my right to have counsel. Now the cour put a guardian ad litem in place to help with this legal process. The only problem is he can not act as my attorney. I need to find counsel that is a bit more aggressive. Please help call 530-8nine9-29two4.

“Removing children from their home is emotionally devastating for both children and their families and should only be considered when absolutely necessary.”

Unfortunately CPS is very much like a for-profit business, a monopoly kind. It has strong incentives to grab children, for that increases the “work” load, giving an excuse to lobby for more funding to hire more caseworkers, more supervisors, to build the organization.

Preserving families if possible (some are really terrible) does nothing to expand the “business.” ALL bureaucracies are like this. Private businesses do not have gunmen to put rivals out of business. Government “businesses” do.

The Federal C.A.P.T.A. laws were so poorly thrown together that I wouldn’t count on them for “reform”. Idea: Invoke the Lindberg Laws, arrest ALL active C.P.S. agents for violating them, & put them on trial. The penalty for kidnapping for money is DEATH. If corrupted court systems won’t do it, then the Sovereign Citizens should.

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